THE ARMS cargo aboard Monchegorsk was transported yesterday to Cypriot Navy base Antistratigos Evaggelos Florakis at Mari, where it will be stored.
The transport operation started yesterday morning, under strict security conditions and a strong presence by police special forces and the National Guard.
“It has been decided that the ship’s cargo, subject to sanctions imposed by UN resolutions, will stay in Cyprus. We had said that before such a decision was taken we would have to evaluate on a technical level whether it could be stored in Cyprus and only if there was a problem would we start a discussion with third countries,” Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said yesterday.
The decision to unload the cargo was taken on Thursday evening, after a meeting at the Ministry of Defense, which is responsible for handling the transport and storage process.
A general meeting of all involved stakeholders took place at Limassol Port to discuss the operational details. At 6am yesterday the Monchegosrk docked at Limassol Port and its cargo was unloaded. By 8am the cargo was being placed on the trucks of a private company, commissioned with delivering the cargo to Mari naval base.
A total of 98 containers aboard the ship were transported to the naval bus by on 15 trucks. Convoys of three trucks, escorted by two police patrol cars made their way back and forth on the Limassol-Nicosia motorway to transport the entire cargo.
Limassol Port and various points along the motorway were guarded by anti-riot police MAAD and National Guardsmen, while a Fire Service vehicle and an ambulance were present at the port throughout the operation. While the cargo was unloaded, Monchegorsk was guarded by a Port Authority vessel.
The arms cargo was unloaded in a specially-formulated cement base, constructed over the last few days for the purpose of storing the cargo at the naval base. Minister of Defense Costas Papacostas visited the army base yesterday to inspect the work taking place.
Meanwhile, Kyprianou clarified that the decision to keep the cargo in Cyprus was in line with the ruling of the UN Sanctions Committee, and that any country objecting to the decision would have to answer to the UN. “Turkey cannot question the fact that the Republic of Cyprus is fulfilling its obligations to the UN,” he said.
On his return yesterday from a visit to Russia, Kyprianou also said that Russia had no objections to Cyprus’ handling of the matter.
“Russia’s position is that Cyprus, Russia and all other UN members have an obligation to adhere to UN resolutions and Russia never intervened to prevent us from fulfilling our obligations,” he said.
